Synesthesia: Society

music: Chamber music with flute

For most of us, a sound is heard, and a sight is seen. But for people with a rare condition called synesthesia, one of the senses can trigger another, so that flute music might look purple, or sunlight could taste like apples. I’m Jim Metzner and this is the Pulse of the Planet, presented by DuPont. Scientists have known about synesthesia for many years, but only now do they have the tools to start understanding it.

“In the latter part of the 19th century, there were a flurry of studies investigating synesthesia. But after the initial studies showing that this did seem to happen for people, the next set of questions — investigating more the nature of the phenomenon and how it works in the brain — the tools were not available at that time to really investigate in the proper way.”

Dr. Peter Grossenbacher is a psychology professor at Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado and considered the leading American expert on synesthesia. The condition may affect as few as one in 2,000 people, who are called synesthetes . It’s now possible, in a sense, to watch a synesthete’s brain work. In a study of people who see spoken words as colors, medical scanning technology was used to compare their brains with those of non-synesthetes.

“The blood flow throughout their brain was measured while the subjects listened to tapes of spoken words. Both groups showed activation of parts of the brain known to deal with sound and language. Only the synesthetes, however, showed a differential pattern of activation in parts of the brain known to deal with color. The brain electrical activity measured showed us that all of that happens rather quickly. One-fifth of a second is not enough time for a person to be faking it. It has to be happening on its own.”

Pulse of the Planet is presented by DuPont, bringing you the miracles of science, with additional support provided by the National Science Foundation. I’m Jim Metzner. For more information about synesthesia, contact Dr. Peter Grossenbacher via e-mail at peterg@naropa.edu or call him at (303) 245-4663.

Synesthesia: Society

Scientists are using brain-imaging techniques to study people with a curious intermingling of the senses called synesthesia.
Air Date:11/08/2000
Scientist:
Transcript:

music: Chamber music with flute

For most of us, a sound is heard, and a sight is seen. But for people with a rare condition called synesthesia, one of the senses can trigger another, so that flute music might look purple, or sunlight could taste like apples. I'm Jim Metzner and this is the Pulse of the Planet, presented by DuPont. Scientists have known about synesthesia for many years, but only now do they have the tools to start understanding it.

"In the latter part of the 19th century, there were a flurry of studies investigating synesthesia. But after the initial studies showing that this did seem to happen for people, the next set of questions -- investigating more the nature of the phenomenon and how it works in the brain -- the tools were not available at that time to really investigate in the proper way."

Dr. Peter Grossenbacher is a psychology professor at Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado and considered the leading American expert on synesthesia. The condition may affect as few as one in 2,000 people, who are called synesthetes . It's now possible, in a sense, to watch a synesthete's brain work. In a study of people who see spoken words as colors, medical scanning technology was used to compare their brains with those of non-synesthetes.

"The blood flow throughout their brain was measured while the subjects listened to tapes of spoken words. Both groups showed activation of parts of the brain known to deal with sound and language. Only the synesthetes, however, showed a differential pattern of activation in parts of the brain known to deal with color. The brain electrical activity measured showed us that all of that happens rather quickly. One-fifth of a second is not enough time for a person to be faking it. It has to be happening on its own."

Pulse of the Planet is presented by DuPont, bringing you the miracles of science, with additional support provided by the National Science Foundation. I'm Jim Metzner. For more information about synesthesia, contact Dr. Peter Grossenbacher via e-mail at peterg@naropa.edu or call him at (303) 245-4663.